Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your perspective I can't just sit inside by the home fire all winter. Cabin fever gets to me rather quickly. So every day I'm out there no matter the weather. Usually, by mid January there at a least few early morning gobbles which of course calm and exhilarate a turkey hunter's spirit all at once. Finally on 2/9/14 Sunday morning at sunrise the very first gobble of 2014 rang out in the clear frigid air. Enough to put a smile any turkey hunter's face even if it was 10 below zero.

Sundog on the left and a rainbow on the right. Intense cold makes for beautiful sunrises.

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Gobbles prove spring is coming, at least eventually.

Anyone else hearing some gobbles?

later, charlie If you agree with me call it fact; if you disagree - call it my opinion. After all - we are talking turkey.

I haven't been out, been to busy in the shop. I've talked with the boys that have and no ones been seeing or hearing anything just yet, still early for this area, they useally don't get started around here until about the end of Feb. But they tell us spring is coming, so we'll see if it does or not before the middle of May ?

Charlie, I would like to go on record as saying that you are official nutts. To me that is way too cold to be doing stuff outside. I would have to find an indoor hobby or anything else than freezing my butt off.

kygobbler wrote:Charlie, I would like to go on record as saying that you are official nutts.

Trust me; You're not the first.

kygobbler wrote:I would have to find an indoor hobby or anything else than freezing my butt off

Then I would get fat. I despise "health clubs" So that leaves the outside.

Covered 50 square miles this weekend in WC WI. 10 of that on snowshoes. The good news we found no dead turkeys. The bad; flushed 2 toms out of some trees while flying away one fell out of the air and we left him floundering in the snow. This is a sign the turkeys are weather weary and weak. Nothing can be done to save them now nature will have its way. Found 30 dead deer, 3 coyotes that had bald eagles feeding on them. Not sure if the coyotes died on their own with the eagles scavenging or if the eagles killed them to eat. Either is a viable scenario.

Hopefully the populations are within carrying capacity, if that is the case then winter kill will be like a cleansing of the weak and sick.

later, charlie If you agree with me call it fact; if you disagree - call it my opinion. After all - we are talking turkey.

Was starting to wonder what you've been finding so far this winter Charlie, looks like we're going to get a little reprieve this week weather-wise. Hopefully this winter isn't too hard on the birds, with all the soon to be 2 yr olds running around this past fall it was shaping up to be an awesome spring!

Gopher,How is the fishing been? OK, I know this is a turkey forum but I want to ask the fish expert something I've been wondering about - Are some of the shallower lakes in danger of major fish kills? Back in the 60's when I used to fish regularly snowfalls were huge and cut off the light in the lakes. Causing aquatic vegetation to decompose, releasing CO2 and suffocating all the fish. I can remember drilling holes in the ice and before I could get my line in the fish would come swimming out on the ice. Are there any reports of this happening with all the snow cover this year?

Back to turkeys. The temp was a mild 18 above zero this morning, YAHOO! The gobblers were celebrating filling the morning's sunrise with a symphony of gobbling. Whew, did that ever make me feel better. Yesterday we found good, strong looking flocks of turkeys feeding on Box Elders and Sumac. There were so many turkeys hanging on the branches I thought the saplings were going to fall down. With the deep snow the turkeys are using their wings to get around. Suppose that will cause their breasts to turn into dark meat?

treerooster, I got some reports of large turkey flocks doing well just NE of your WI location. Apparently they're coming out of the tamarack swamps to forage. Those same guys found a few dead wolves and lots of dead deer. They were using snowmobiles to get back into some deeryards in order to cut down browse for the deer. In spite of all the dead deer, as they cut, more deer were arriving to feed. As we say around here- "chainsaw is a dinner bell."

later, charlie If you agree with me call it fact; if you disagree - call it my opinion. After all - we are talking turkey.

The lakes around here are in bad shape, with the thick ice. I'v heard of quite a few fishermen drilling holes in the bays and as soon as you get the ice out of them dead fish start floating up, a lot of good size gills and crappie.

Yeah it's a long way yet. March is the most deadly month. However, today was 46, that's 46 above zero After Vic and I took a long hike on a plowed logging 2 track, no snowshoes required we sat on the deck in shirt sleeves while I drank a beer. Spring time in WI doesn't get any better than that.

later, charlie If you agree with me call it fact; if you disagree - call it my opinion. After all - we are talking turkey.

Fishing has been good Charlie, it's a nice diversion between turkey seasons for me Those shallower lakes certainly could be at significant risk for winterkill this year, what with the early ice, and snowfall this winter. While it might look bad, winter kill is a natural phenomenon and can often be a good thing for a lake. Kills are never complete, some fish always make it though. After a winter kill event the fish that are left often experience a big jump in growth rates as there is suddenly a surplus of food and habitat available, especially since the lakes prone to kills are often very productive to start with. Usually 2-4 years after a winterkill the fishing will have recovered or surpassed the prekill levels.